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When a crow dies, the other crows investigate the cause of death (2015)

news.nationalgeographic.com

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Re: When a crow dies, the other crows investigate the cause of death (2015)

#211

Post by wavefunction »

omegaham wrote: post #32
rudedogg wrote: post #6

My dog has been on a killing spree this summer, sometimes catching 2 birds in a week :(. It's amazing how the birds react when she catches one. They all go nuts, and more fly in and start squawking. I worry they'll call in a hawk to carry her away lol.

Growing up, I had a cat who got attacked by a hawk. He came running in one day with deep talon scratches on his back. My mom took him to the vet, who cleaned up the wounds and said that it was probably a juvenile who was overconfident in what he could grab. An adult wouldn't have tried. The mental image of this teenager hawk swooping down, grabbing a fatass 15-pound cat, and struggling to pick it up while Mom looks d…

I've seen an adult hawk predate a small dog before. The dog was likely killed by the impact of the hawk, though I couldn't be sure because the hawk carried the limp body away before the owner could take any action.

Here's another example:

http://www.wrdw.com/home/headlines/Hawk-flies-away-with-fami...

Re: When a crow dies, the other crows investigate the cause of death (2015)

#212

Post by JTon »

nerone wrote: post #99

For last 2 years, I am suffering from depression. I decided to isolate myself, which I knew was wrong. My parents were worried about my situation since I am living with them. I live in a village where this sort of behavior is condemned, and people are very hardworking(they are either farmers, fishermen, construction workers/helpers). What I noticed was, whenever I go outside of my house a bunch of crows will gather a…

An alternate explanation: The crows were cawing encouragements :)

Re: When a crow dies, the other crows investigate the cause of death (2015)

#213

Post by Someone »

sqeaky wrote: post #204
aaron695 wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- It seems like a squad of crows could do some real damage to a person Sorry but you've lost the plot on this one. Seen way to many movies. Single birds might become territorial when they have young and you might lose a eye. But thats it. I'd watch less TV/'current affairs'/crows are smart stories if I was you. Alcohol, tobacco and mental issues.... now those are scarry killers.

Losing an eye.... How. Birds weight so little compared to a human that our eyelids mass is significant on that scale. The reason birds don't attack people is because a human randomly flailing can outright kill crows by the dozen and evolution selects against suicide.

I'm not arguing crows will attack people, but 'evolution selects against suicide' does not guarantee they don't.

Bees attack people, and they are quite a bit smaller.

Humans in wartime volunteer for suicide missions, too, if they deem the payout for their comrades high enough.

Re: When a crow dies, the other crows investigate the cause of death (2015)

#214

Post by Someone »

iaw wrote: post #208
SiVal wrote: post #124

A VERY timely article for me. About a month ago here in Silicon Valley, I noticed that a crow had been violently torn apart and the pieces scattered all over my backyard lawn. I assume the killer was a raccoon--another improbably intelligent animal. How those fat, little ninjas do what they do is beyond me, but one had apparently caught a crow. A few hours after I noticed the carnage, I grabbed a paper grocery bag an…

A decade ago I was driving through a quiet street when a crow limped into the middle directly in line with my tire. I slowed and tried to steer around but the guy seemed intent on limping into his own demise. Rolling forward at 5 MPH he disappeared under my car only to dart up at the last moment to a telephone line overhead. I looked in my rear-view mirror out of confusion to find that the crows "limp" was in fact a…

They're smarter nowadays; they place the nut on zebra crossings with traffic lights, and wait for the light to turn green (possible using 'pedestrians cross the road' as a clue) before hopping onto the road (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGPGknpq3e0)

Re: When a crow dies, the other crows investigate the cause of death (2015)

#215

Post by euyyn »

matwood wrote: post #175
aaron695 wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- It seems like a squad of crows could do some real damage to a person Sorry but you've lost the plot on this one. Seen way to many movies. Single birds might become territorial when they have young and you might lose a eye. But thats it. I'd watch less TV/'current affairs'/crows are smart stories if I was you. Alcohol, tobacco and mental issues.... now those are scarry killers.

I would consider losing an eye real damage to my person.

Apparently you need to watch less movies about blindness being bad...

Re: When a crow dies, the other crows investigate the cause of death (2015)

#216

Post by joveian »

kissickas wrote: post #72
nl wrote: post #3

This whole article is pretty interesting, but the last paragraph is worth quoting: For instance, in 2008 Marzluff had researchers in caveman masks capture crows while others in a control mask—Dick Cheney—let the birds be. Afterward the birds ignored the harmless Cheneys but scolded and chased the cavemen, and did so for years. Poor birds! Probably thought they could trust a Crow-Magnon. Dick Cheney masks! Probably th…

Seems like crows are prime for weaponization (maybe expressing my inner Dick Cheney here). Just don a mask and attack a few crows near your target, leaving some witnesses. Has it ever been done before? A quick Google search didn't uncover anything.

Sound like high risk for low reward, even if they don't figure out that the other people aren't involved which they might.

At first I thought you ment like this: http://cyberneticzoo.com/bionics/1940-project-pigeon-1948-pr...

Re: When a crow dies, the other crows investigate the cause of death (2015)

#217

Post by douche »

Growing up with a large garden out in the country, we always had a lot of trouble with crows picking newly-sprouted corn. They'd go right along the row and pluck out the seedlings to eat the kernel at the root. At least, they would, until my father would manage to get one with the shotgun and then hang it up from the scarecrow. After that, there wouldn't be a crow in sight for months.

They are smart creatures.

Re: When a crow dies, the other crows investigate the cause of death (2015)

#218

Post by goda90 »

chrisseaton wrote: post #161
goda90 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I took a wilderness survival course in college that included multiple days in the wilderness for the final. In over 40 years there had only been two deaths. One was dehydration due to a stupid fad diet and the other was hantavirus. It looks like the flu until it's too late. So if you are around mice droppings and get flu like symptoms soon after, get to a doctor soon.

> I took a wilderness survival course in college That's interesting - do you mean as a part of a social club, or actual scholarly study of survival techniques? Or maybe to support a major in something like archeology? Or maybe a military college?

It was an actual elective class as part of the "Recreation Management" major at my university, but I took it for fun. We talked about and practiced techniques for building fire, shelter, and tools, as well as foraging for food and being wary of physical and mental problems that arise in survival situations. Supposedly back in the day(70s and 80s) it was actually a month long trek out in the wilderness and some students even took it to make up for some sort of probation for misconduct. For our final exam we just had three nights, two of them alone, out in the Utah desert. Our teacher was a Native American, former Army Ranger who had been doing bushcraft since a very young age.

Re: When a crow dies, the other crows investigate the cause of death (2015)

#219

Post by goda90 »

jandrese wrote: post #151
goda90 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I took a wilderness survival course in college that included multiple days in the wilderness for the final. In over 40 years there had only been two deaths. One was dehydration due to a stupid fad diet and the other was hantavirus. It looks like the flu until it's too late. So if you are around mice droppings and get flu like symptoms soon after, get to a doctor soon.

If you are out in the wilderness you are always around rodent droppings. Hantavirus is one of those things that backpacking magazines freak out about, but it's so incredibly rare that there's basically no point in wasting brain cells worrying about it. It's down in the "act of God" ways you might die (meteor strike, lightning, etc...).

Yeah, we were told not to worry too much, just to be wary since someone had died 30 years prior. What I've read is that if you're in an enclosed space with a lot of rodent droppings(say an abandoned cottage or something) then there is some risk, but open air is safe.

Re: When a crow dies, the other crows investigate the cause of death (2015)

#220

Post by iaw »

Someone wrote: post #214
iaw wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A decade ago I was driving through a quiet street when a crow limped into the middle directly in line with my tire. I slowed and tried to steer around but the guy seemed intent on limping into his own demise. Rolling forward at 5 MPH he disappeared under my car only to dart up at the last moment to a telephone line overhead. I looked in my rear-view mirror out of confusion to find that the crows "limp" was in fact a…

They're smarter nowadays; they place the nut on zebra crossings with traffic lights, and wait for the light to turn green (possible using 'pedestrians cross the road' as a clue) before hopping onto the road ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGPGknpq3e0 )

In this area there weren't any traffic controls. The level of planning and understanding that corvids demonstrate in most tasks exceeds anything I've seen from even the smartest of dogs.

I wish I could know what they were thinking.

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